GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know as you start the day.

999 calls

1. Gardaí are forced to waste time on frivolous call outs because of an “over-correction” in the wake of the cancelled 999 calls scandal.

That is the conclusion of Dr Elaine Byrne, the who is the chair of the Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA).

Israeli embassy staff killed in US

2. Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were shot and killed on Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum in the US capital. 

The suspect yelled “free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police said.

Drowning in Cork

3. A 39-year-old man drowned in the River Blackwater at Dysert, Dromagh, Mallow in Co Cork yesterday evening.

Driving tests 

4. The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has been tasked with getting the wait time for driving tests down to 10 weeks by September.

Kneecap 

5. One of the members of Irish rap group Kneecap has been charged with a terror offence in the UK.

‘White genocide’ 

6. US President Donald Trump and his guest, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, had a heated disagreement over Trump’s claims of “white genocide” occurring within South Africa. 

Israeli shots at EU diplomats

7. Israel’s ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich has been delivered a démarche from a senior official of the Department of Foreign Affairs condemning shots fired in the vicinity of a group of diplomats in the West Bank.

Irish Nationwide 

8. A former senior manager at failed lender Irish Nationwide has told the High Court that he was left “absolutely shocked” after being told that Michael Fingleton Sr had given an alleged “get out of jail card” to a borrower who could not repay a multi-million euro loan.

Sex offenders 

9. A UK review of sentencing has recommended exploring chemical castration for sex offenders as a way of reducing reoffending.